Monthly Archives: May 2015

It’s the characters that make this story. The narrator, Nick, is fairly plain and uninteresting, but the people around him are such complex, intriguing and entertaining characters that I loved this book from beginning to end.

The story follows the life of the rich on Long Island in the 1920s. They invite themselves to parties, they complain about the heat and are utterly unhappy in their marriages. It’s the perfect recipe for an engaging story where the characters drive the plot, not the other way round.

This story called Our budding friendship goes back to when I was about 7 years old and teamed up with a girl who was quite a bit naughtier than I was. She showed me how to have fun without getting caught.

April 2015 – Grandparents

An emotional topic this month, and my most heartfelt piece so far for ABC Open. This is forever talks about my relationship with my grandparents – my grandfather who died last year and my grandmother who is now in a nursing home. Memories of their relationship with my own son warms my heart.

May 2015 – I quit

Mountain-top quitting talks about a snowboarding trip my husband and I took to New Zealand 10 years ago… and how sore I was after falling over 567 times on the hard, icy snow.

There’s a silo in the field just over that hill. It’s empty. It’s been empty for years.

The farmer built it thirty years ago. It was meant to hold grain from the surrounding fields. It just never worked out that way. Not enough rain. Too much rain. Not enough rain again. The crop was never successful. The silo was never filled.

The farmer’s wife tried to console him. ‘It’s too late now.’

She sighed deeply before suggesting, ‘Maybe we should accept the fact and just stop trying.’

He looked across at the empty fields. His empty arms. His empty house.

Friday Fictioneers is a challenge set by Rochelle each week where writers from around the world post 100 word stories based on a common photo prompt. For more information, and to read other stories, visit Rochelle’s page here.

Coming off the back of Pride and Prejudice, I needed something that was short, easy to read and straight to the point. This book promised all of these things. It delivered… but I was left with an uneasy feeling that the story could have been so much better. That it was almost a very good book.

The positives are many. For one, it’s a brilliant concept: that, at the moment of your death, you meet five integral people from your life to help you realise things about your life. Two, the characters are interesting. Three, the story is revealed slowly throughout without pages of info-dump.

Friday Fictioneers is a challenge set by Rochelle each week where writers from around the world post 100 word stories based on a common photo prompt. For more information, and to read other stories, visit Rochelle’s page here.

PS if you have discovered the meaning of this story and would like to challenge yourself, the magic number is 16.